Foreign Policy Blogs

How Cool is a Fuel Cell Car?

I told one of my classes last week, after the Gulf of Mexico disaster, that the next time I heard someone talk about the romance of the internal combustion engine, I was going to deck them.

As with coal, so with oil.  (See last post below.)  We don’t need it, and the sooner we transition to the technology-driven economy, the easier we are all going to be able to breathe – literally and figuratively.  I quoted a “NYT” story here to the effect that, at a recent international auto show, “…the internal-combustion engine seemed almost passé.”

Well, aside from hybrids and EVs, there’s the fuel cell car.  It’s about time, it seems to me.  Honda is coming out with the FCX Clarity.  Seems like a blockbuster to me.  Emissions?  No carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, or particulates.  Only water vapor.  ZEV works for me.  You?

For an entertaining look at hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, see Click and Clack on Nova here.  In Iceland, not incidentally, they’re going to make their hydrogen with 100% renewable energy, hydro or geothermal.

And take a closer look here at how the Clarity works.

http://www.hondauk-media.co.uk/uploads/visualmedia/100c150027821f175f615c8f28eb1ebe0a30373a/fcx_clarity.jpg

 

Author

Bill Hewitt

Bill Hewitt has been an environmental activist and professional for nearly 25 years. He was deeply involved in the battle to curtail acid rain, and was also a Sierra Club leader in New York City. He spent 11 years in public affairs for the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, and worked on environmental issues for two NYC mayoral campaigns and a presidential campaign. He is a writer and editor and is the principal of Hewitt Communications. He has an M.S. in international affairs, has taught political science at Pace University, and has graduate and continuing education classes on climate change, sustainability, and energy and the environment at The Center for Global Affairs at NYU. His book, "A Newer World - Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis," will be out from the University Press of New England in December.



Areas of Focus:
the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

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